This invention relates generally to child tracking or locating devices and, more particularly, to a child locator that enables an adult to locate a monitored device, to actuate an alarm at the monitored device automatically if a predetermined separation distance is reached or manually as desired, or to communicate with the monitored device.
Parents and children are frequently in environments or situations where they may become separated. This separation may be inadvertent, such as straying away at a shopping mall, or voluntary, such as playing at a park or beach. In either case, a parent or guardian often desires to locate the child very quickly to verify the child's safety. Depending on the situation, an audible alarm worn by the child may be desired while other time, say at the beach at night, a bright visual alarm might be more desirable. Of course, it would be desirable to just be able to hear the child playing without activating an audible or visual alarm. Or, in the case of a child merely playing at a friend's house down the street, a walkie-talkie type feature may be sufficient to locate and communicate instructions to the child.
Various devices have been proposed in the art for locating and/or tracking a child. For example, devices utilizing global position satellite technology are useful for locating an exact geographical position but are somewhat expansive and unnecessary when a child may be only a short distance away from the parent. Other systems merely propose two-way pagers worn by parent and child. Although assumably effective for their intended purposes, the existing devices do not provide both locating and alert means suitable for many different types of circumstances.
Therefore, it would be desirable to have a child locator for providing a visual direction indication of where a monitored unit (with a child) is located in relation to a master unit (with the parent). Further, it would be desirable to have a child locator that provides an audible or visual alarm either when a separation distance exceeds a predetermined distance or manually. In addition, it would be desirable if the child locator also includes both a one-way communication and a two-way walkie-talkie feature.